The Other Side
by Faygo-Cytosis
Summary: Levering himself up, he looked around only to see nothing but blank whiteness all around him. There was no sky above him, no ground below him. He was surrounded by pure...nothingness.
1. Side A

A/N: I know I have a TON of other fics to work on, but this idea came to me at work, and I really had to write it down.

This will be a two-part story, with the other half coming up really soon.

This takes place near the end of the Thriller Bark arc, so if you haven't read/watched that far, YOU ARE WARNED.

Also, this is a Nakama fic, not Yaoi.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**SIDE A**

"Oi. Marimo. Wake up."

Zoro stirred with a muffled groan. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and he had a strange feeling like there was something he should be worried about, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

He blinked his eyes open slowly, then grunted in surprise as he was nearly blinded by the whiteness that surrounded him. Levering himself up, he looked around only to see nothing but blank whiteness all around him. There was no sky above him, no ground below him. He was surrounded by pure…nothingness.

"What the Hell?"

As he whipped his head around from side to side, he could hear the faint jingle of the three gold bars in his ear swinging against eachother, but other than that and the increasingly rapid pace of his own breathing, he could hear nothing. Nor was there any scent to this place either. Just that odd blankness. He didn't even feel hot or cold, just…there.

"Rather dull don`t you think, shit-swordsman?"

He snapped his head around again, but there was no sign of the cook anywhere. It had sounded like the cook was to his right, but there was nothing there. No arrogant blonde, not even the smell of cigarette smoke.

"Over here, asshole."

He whipped around to the left, half expecting to see nothing, but Sanji was standing right there, lit cigarette dangling from his lips. His suit was immaculate, not a speck of dust on it, and for some reason this struck Zoro as odd. So did the fact that the cook seemed completely at ease, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

The swordsman, however, was growing more uneasy by the second. He had noticed that his swords were gone, sheathes and all, though he couldn't remember removing them from their place at his hip. His own clothes were perfectly clean and remarkably free of holes, which was rare even on a good day. He also didn't feel tired or hungry or thirsty. Something was wrong.

"What the Hell is going on, curl-brow?"

Sanji turned to look at him fully, and a shiver ran down the swordsman's spine when he saw none of the usual anger or hostility in the cook's gaze. Only a strange kind of sadness, or resignation.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

His first impulse was to growl at him for such a stupid question, but he paused. Now that he actually tried, he could remember some things. Thriller Bark, missing shadows, that weird talking skeleton, and then that supersized Luffy-thing. Oz, maybe? But that was strange. Sanji had been one of those most injured by the horned monstrosity, yet now he seemed to be perfectly fine.

He could also recall Luffy wailing on Moria and getting back all of their shadows. He remembered how glad he was that that mess was finally over so that he could go lie down and sleep somewhere.

But something else had happened, right? Some other enemy?

Sanji was watching him quietly the whole time. Upon seeing Zoro's confusion at the events following the battle against Moria, he sighed, smoke streaming from his nostrils to disappear into the blankness.

"It's time to go, Marimo. The others are waiting."

Zoro's brow creased in confusion. "What the Hell are you talking about, shit-cook?"

Sanji didn't answer. The swordsman was about to ask again when he heard something. Something in this strange blankness that wasn't them.

"_-ro…Zoro!"_

"…the fuck?"

It kind of sounded like Luffy's voice, but as before when he looked around he saw nothing but himself and the cook. His gaze turned sharply to the blonde, sure that there was something that he wasn't telling him.

Sanji merely turned his gaze away, and Zoro lunged forward and grabbed the lapels of his jacket. He was ready to shake that strange, sad look off of the cook's face when he heard Luffy's voice again, clearer now.

"_ZORO! WAKE UP ZORO!"_

"_Come on, Sword-bro!" _That was Franky's voice.

"_Z-z-zoro! P-please!" _No mistaking that trembling voice for anyone other than Usopp.

"_Swordsman-san, please, you must not leave us." _That was Robin. But why did she sound so sad?

"_-Three…Four…Five! Come on, Zoro! Don't give up! One…Two…!" _

The last was Chopper, and now he felt something pushing on his chest with every count, and every time it reached five, he felt a sudden current of air filling his lungs.

He also heard another voice crying. Not quietly either. Loud, screaming sobs of utter grief. He couldn't make out the words contained in those cries, but he thought he recognised the voice. But the question was, why was Nami crying?

His grip tightened on Sanji's collar and he shook him roughly. "What the fuck is going on here, shit-cook?!"

A small hint of annoyance flickered across Sanji's face. He slapped Zoro's hands away and re-adjusted his jacket. "Like I said, moron, the others are waiting. It's time to go."

"Go where?! It's nothing but this God-damned emptiness all around us!"

"Turn around."

He wanted to argue that there was nothing to see back there, but the look on the cook's face was beginning to bother him again. Grunting in frustration, he turned around.

And stared that the scene before him.

Nearly thirty feet away from them, the nothingness abruptly ended. In it's stead were the crumbling walls and rubble-strewn grounds of Thriller Bark. But it wasn't the surroundings that had caught his attention.

His crewmates, or most of them anyway, were circled around someone lying amidst the rubble and broken stone. Chopper was trying to resuscitate the person, compressing their chest and occasionally attempting mouth-to-mouth. Usopp was crying openly and pulling at his hair. Franky sat a little further off to the side, one large arm around Robin's shoulders as the dark haired woman wept silently. Zoro could see the person's face because Luffy was blocking his view, and the young Captain seemed torn between shouting at the poor victim and encouraging Chopper. It wasn't until he saw his own swords lying at the person's hip that thing finally started to click into place.

That body lying on the ground was _him_.

And that revelation led to another. He now remembered what had happened after Moria.

Another Shichibukai. Kuma.

He remembered how easily they had all been beaten. How Kuma was going to take Luffy's head while the young Captain lay senseless. How he had bargained for Kuma to take his life instead.

And how that stupid asshole-cook had intervened.

But he had knocked the cook out, hadn't he?

"Cook, what the fuck did you do!"

Sanji wouldn't look him in the eye, instead looking over his shoulder at their Nakama who were trying desperately to revive the fallen swordsman.

"_ZOROOOOO! AS YOUR CAPTAIN, I SAY WAKE UP!!!"_

"_Sword-bro, c'mon. You have to stay with us!"_

"_We can't lose you too, Swordsman-san."_

_We can't lose you too…_

Zoro froze, his horrified gaze fixed firmly on Sanji. "You bastard. What did you do? Answer me!"

"It. Doesn't. Matter. The others are waiting, so get a move on!"

"Fine!" The green haired man turned on his heel and started to walk towards Luffy and the others. He heard the steady _tap-tap _of Sanji's shoes as the cook followed behind him, and as he got closer and closer to the others, he started to feel more of the pain and weariness he knew his body must be suffering. He relaxed considerably when he set foot on the rocky ground of Thriller Bark.

He was barely ten paces away from that strange blankness when he realised that the cook had stopped. Growling, he spun around to yell at the cook.

"Stop wasting time and move your ass, cook! Weren't you the one that told me not to keep them waiting?!"

Sanji was standing right on the edge of that eerie nothingness, the toes of his shoes mere millimeters away from the rocky ground where everyone else stood. His eyes were still focused on some point behind Zoro, his expression nearly as blank as the nothingness on which he stood.

Wanting this whole ordeal over with so that he could safely kick the blonde's ass, Zoro stormed forward and grabbed his wrist in a vice-like grip. He yanked hard, and was astonished to find that the cook didn't move even an inch. He tried again and again, pulling as hard as he could, but the cook wouldn't budge past the edge of the emptiness where he stood.

He vaguely registered Nami's cries intensifying again, and now he could make out what she was saying.

"_Sanji! NO! How could you leave us like this! Why did you give up so easily!? H-how…could you leave _**me**_?"_

Zoro's grip on Sanji's wrist went slack as his eyes widened. "Sanji…"

Hearing his name spoken by the other, the blond finally met Zoro's gaze. The expression in his eyes was bleak, and no long resigned as it had been. The grief there nearly tore Zoro apart.

"I can't."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**SIDE A – END**

A/N: I was gonna post this all in one go, but I figured it would be better to split it in two. I'm typing the other half as we speak, so it shall be up in the next couple of days.


	2. Side B

A/N: And here we go, the awaited finale of The Other Side.

I think this ending works rather well, though I did have a few others in mind. If you guys want to see the other endings, let me know and I shall post them.

To **dandy wonderous: **Thank you so much! **** Truth is, you are one of my favourite One Piece authors, and I love your story Room for Two. I've been thinking of making you a fanart for that one, actually. xD

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**SIDE B**

"I can't."

Sanji watched sadly as the swordsman's face went slack, a moment of pure unadulterated anguish overtaking his features before they hardened into a scowl.

"What do you mean, you can't?"

Sanji didn't answer. Or, rather, he couldn't. He could only gesture vaguely over Zoro's shoulder. The swordsman turned to follow his gaze and stood completely immobile.

Sanji couldn't blame him, really. That had been his reaction at first too.

Nami was bent over the prone body of the cook, loud wails of sorrow pouring from her mouth to echo around the broken battlefield. What could be seen of his body was drenched in blood and his precious fingers were bent and twisted. Brooke sat quietly at Nami's side, a skeletal hand resting on her shaking back.

The swordsman started to swear loudly and violently, and if it had been any other time Sanji would have been highly amused. As it was, though, he couldn't find any humor in this situation.

It had all started with that stupid Marimo trying to be all noble and sacrificing himself to save their Captain. Sanji had tried to offer himself in his stead. Hell, he hadn't been Luffy's Nakama as long and at least the moss-head had a dream that actually existed.

Then the idiot just _had_ to go and smash one of those fucking swords into his already abused ribs. He knew the swordsman didn't feel any of the satisfaction that he normally would have, and had in fact felt bad for doing that, but it didn't make it any more forgivable. In fact, it made it even worse.

It was the swordsman's screams that woke him. He remembered forcing himself up just in time to see Zoro collapse from the 'sample' of Luffy's pain that Kuma had given him. Seeing the blood that poured from the other man had terrified him, especially when he saw how much more pain the swordsman had waiting for him.

So he waited. As soon as the swordsman had thrust his arms into the giant red paw Sanji had lunged forward on his battered legs and forced his own arms into it as well.

Pain like he had never known flooded his body in that instant and there was nothing he could to do prevent his own cries from joining Zoro's. Then everything went white.

When he finally regained his senses he was already standing in the gaping white abyss that he was in now, hearing Nami's cries and the pleas of his Nakama. Chopper had check over both him and Zoro, and in a shaking voice told the others that while the swordsman could be saved, it was already too late for Sanji. He had stood at the boundary between here and there and watched as they tried furiously to revive the swordsman. When he felt Zoro's presence, and the strength it still possessed, he had wanted to cry in relief. Then in jealousy. Then in shame.

The Marimo still had a chance. There was still the tiniest hint of life left in his body.

So why wouldn't the fucker just go already?

The grip on his wrist tightened suddenly and the swordsman gave another pull. Sanji's arm moved forward ever so slightly before stopping abruptly at the edge of the nothingness, almost as if an invisible wall blocked him. Maybe he should be glad he was already dead, otherwise his hand would be hurting like Hell at this point.

"I told you: I CAN'T. Just go, already! If you stay here too long trying to pull me through, you'll end up dead as well!" Dead. He had said it. And there was no way he would ever admit that his voice had broken on that word. Tears of frustration and sorrow began to pour down his face, and he couldn't care less.

"And how the fuck do you know that?" Okay, now the shitty Marimo was glaring at him, which was stupid since he was the one being an idiot.

"Because I've been here before, that's how!"

Zoro's eyebrows knitted in confusion at that, but his grip didn't loosen. "When the Hell was that?"

Sanji sighed. "Remember Enel? When he zapped me on that stupid flying ship of his, I ended up here. I saw others, though. And those that stayed too long trying to bring back others ended up dead." His voice had gone nearly quiet now, and he was staring at the ground, at the border between the two worlds.

Zoro's grip tightened again and he was pulling in earnest now.

"_ZOOORROOOOOO!!!"_

"_No! Sanji! Why?!"_

"_Please, Swordsman-san, we can't lose another."_

"_Sword-bro!"_

"_Sanji! Please!"_

"_C'mon Zoro! One…Two…Three…!"_

"_D-don't be such a c-c-coward! C-come back already!"_

"_ZORO!!! COME BACK AND BRING SANJI WITH YOU!!!"_

"Zoro! Just go already! Don't force them to cry over your useless ass too!"

"Shut up! You're coming with me, shit-cook! Besides, didn't you hear the Captain?!"

"Hurry up and go back already!"

"Not without your sorry ass!"

"My, my. Quite noisy, aren't we?"

Two heads whipped around to stare at the newcomer, who stood back in the abyss behind Sanji.

The blonde could feel the swordsman's body go rigid beside him. He didn't understand what could have set the guy off. The girl that stood a short distance behind them in the abyss only looked to be about fourteen or so, wearing a simple white shirt and red shorts. Her blue-black hair was cut short and he eyes were wide and bright.

"K-kuina?"

Sanji suddenly felt a shock go up his own spine. He had heard that name before.

This was the girl that was at the center of the dream that Zoro fought so hard for.

He was so shocked that the cigarette fell from his lips only to disappear from existence as soon as it lost contact with his mouth.

"Why-" The swordsman swallowed thickly. "Why are you here?"

Kuina chuckled. "I seem to remember something about a flight of stairs…"

The swordsman flinched. "No, I mean what are you doing _here_, _now_?"

Sanji saw her young face settle into a delicate frown. "I'm here to tell you that you have to go. If you stay here any longer, you will die too."

The cook was about to agree when he saw the other man's eyes harden. "I am _not_ leaving without him."

"Listen, you stupid Marimo! I'm dead. DEAD! I _can't_ go back!"

Kuina nodded. "It's true. He has already died, and he can't go back-"

"See?! That's what I've been telling you-"

"-_unless_ an appropriate price is paid."

"-and you should just listen to her already and…WHAT?!"

Sanji whipped his head around so fast that he was sure a living person would have gotten whiplash. There was a way out of this place?!

Zoro, on the other hand, looked suspicious. "…what kind of price?"

Her face was all seriousness now. "Half of your remaining lifespan."

Zoro didn't even consider it for half a second. "Done."

"WHAT?!" The blonde tried to pull away, but the swordsman's grip never wavered. "You can't be _serious_!"

"He's right, Zoro." Her voice was quiet, sad. It obviously pained her to be putting this option in front of him. "You don't even know how much time you have left. Your remaining time will be divided between the two of you and you will both go back, only to die together at the same time. That could be years away, or it could be tomorrow."

"I don't care. This idiot is coming back whether he wants to or not."

Sanji sputtered, staring first at Kuina, then at Zoro. That idiot couldn't be serious, could he?!

Her smile didn't reach her eyes as she nodded towards the two men. "Very well then."

Suddenly Sanji gasped out in pain. Everything was starting to flood back to him all at once. The angry throbbing in his leg from kicking that stupid Kuma in the face, the horrible pain of his broken ribs, the shock from the explosion. And over all of that was the crippling pain and fatigue that was his half of what had been taken from Luffy.

As Zoro began to pull him past the now non-existent barrier, the pain only increased in volume. He found himself trying to dig his heels into the ground, yanking on his wrist, _anything_ to get that pain to stop and to go back to that sweet sensation-free void that he had been desperate to escape just moments before.

He didn't even realise that tears were pouring down his face, or the fact that he was now _begging_ Zoro to leave him, to let him escape.

The swordsman didn't even turn to look at him. "This is going to be very difficult, and it's going to hurt like Hell. Shit, you might even _hate_ me for this if you don't already, but you are going to make it through this. You _are_ going back."

Over his continued cries and protests, Sanji didn't hear Kuina bidding a quiet farewell.

Zoro jerked upward violently, then instantly regretted it as his whole body protested. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he chanced a quick look around the dark room. At first he didn't realise where he was, but then he heard the creak of wood and the slap of waves against the hull. He was on the Sunny. He was alive. He had made it out of that place after all.

…but what about Sanji?

Alarmed, he whipped his head about to scan the infirmary's other bed and breathed out a thunderous sigh when he saw the blonde cook laying there, heavily bandaged, but alive.

Later, the others would tell him how miraculous it had been. Chopper had been absolutely sure that Sanji was dead and was mere seconds from giving up on Zoro when the swordsman had let out a choked cough. Chopper had just recovered from that shock when he heard Sanji scream. It was a horrible sound, full of pain, but it had meant that the cook wasn't dead. It had still been touch and go for a while, and Sanji had almost slipped away twice, but now they were both stable and looking to recover.

A few days later, Zoro wandered up on deck late at night to find the cook leaning against the rail, cigarette dangling from his mouth. His hands were heavily bandaged, but Chopper was more than confident that they would heal just fine.

"Oi, shit-cook. Should you even be up here?"

Sanji huffed out a large cloud of smoke with a pained wheeze before replying. "I'll do what I damn well please, Marimo."

Zoro rolled his eyes and moved forward to lean on the rail next to the chef. Watching the other man, the swordsman could see the haunted look in his eyes that had been there ever since they had found themselves facing that white abyss.

Sanji cleared his throat awkwardly, still raw from screaming himself hoarse. "Thank you, you know, for what you did there."

Zoro grunted. "Don't worry about that, idiot. It's over with now." The chef turned towards him quickly, anger and sadness fighting for dominance over his face.

"How can you say that?! You gave up HALF of your life for me! Why would you _do_ that?! Why risk your dream?!"

Now Zoro was angry. "It was my life to give up, and I don't plan on dying anytime soon. As I see it, my dream isn't at risk because of this. Besides, you should know already why I did this."

"Well, you should enlighten me because I seem to be a little slow at the moment." The bitterness and sarcasm was evident in his voice.

Zoro huffed. "Obviously. Since you are being so dense about this, curl-brow, I'll tell you. You are Nakama. What other reason do I need?"

As Sanji stared at him incredulously Zoro felt himself start to blush. He was being totally serious and honest, yet for some reason he felt like an idiot. "Besides, you would do the same thing for me, love-cook. Actually, I guess you already did."

Sanji was at a loss for words. Having Zoro state his reason so plainly like that made him feel so foolish. He should have known.

"…I guess. So, does this mean we're all buddy-buddy and crap?"

"Not on your life, shit-cook."

Kuina smiled as she watched the two fall back into their routine of fighting and bickering, though she noted that the insults had less bite, the attacks less force.

The two of them had proven to be true Nakama, first with Sanji giving up his life to save Zoro, then when Zoro gave up half of his remaining lifespan without hesitation to give the chef another chance.

They needed this bond more than ever, for the events ahead would push them and their other Nakama to their limits.

Somehow, though, she knew they were ready.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**SIDE B – END**

A/N: So? What did you guys think? I had other versions planned with a Not-so-happy ending, or with a Yaoi flavour or with other such changes, but I think this one worked the best.

Also, I have an Epilogue of sorts planned out for this. If you guys would like to see it, just tell me in your reviews.

Please give me feedback, I'd love to hear it!


End file.
